As more and more web based tools solely created to help designers and developers in their mission to overpower sturfy web design come to life, we are plastered with one decision to make. Which of these tools benefit me the most? Many of these tools will indeed allow you to become a much better designer with the aid of tools that will help you code faster and become a bit more organized. This will allow you to actually save a great deal of time while also practicing good organizational skills all in one.
Below you will find 50+ tools that will make you a better, faster, and more collective designer, if you use them correctly.

Firebug is a free, open source in-browser web development application for Firefox. Notible features include: HTML and CSS editing that lets you swiftly debug, analyzing JavaScript, and a creative Document Object Model (DOM) inspection tool that aids you in quickly seeing how the elements of a web page relate to each other.

Blueprint: A CSS Framework

Blueprint lets you reduce the amount of CSS code you’re normally obligated to write by using common styles that developers regularly use such CSS reset and the embedding of images.

Widely used as an opensource CSS parser and optimiser, CSSTidy is available as an executeable file (for Windows, Linux and OSX). This useful app allows you to quickly and effectively “tidy” up your CSS sheets without the necessary hassels.

Web Developer is a Firefox extension that every developer should have, it’s sort of a tool box all in its own. It provides you with tools to conduct tests (including testing for broken images or links), testing layouts in multiple screen sizes, viewing cookie information, HTML, CSS sheets, and validating mark-up.

BBEdit is a full-featured text editor very similar to Textmate. The BBEdit product page even has a section for web developers to see the benefits of BBEdit. For those Mac users who think BBEdit is better than Textmate, it’s usually because BBEdit is a Cocoa application, and TextMate is a Unix application.

Blueprint is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your development time. It gives you a solid foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, useful plugins, and even a stylesheet for printing.

CSSedit is developed by the same company that offers Espresso. CSSedit is mainly a text editor focused specifically on CSS (as you can tell by the name). Among several of the text editors available, this app is perfect for those designers who strive to produce sites and templates within an allotted time span.

MAMP allows you acquire your own local server and have it up and running within 5 minutes. The abbreviation MAMP stands for Mac, Apache, MySQL, and PHP-Perl-Python. Because it’s based on giving you the freedom to choose whichever sever side language you prefer. MAMP is pretty much your “One-Click-Solution for setting up your personal webserver”.

One of the best free FTP tools around. FileZilla provides unlimited uploads and downloads and supports resumption of transfers when your connection is broken. FileZilla comes in two flavors – full-featured FTP client, and FTP server. Both support FTP over open connections, SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH FTP.

Clean is an open source engine for AJAX, that provides a high level interface to work with the AJAX technology. It can be plugged in any page or DHTML framework because it was designed in conformation with the separation of concerns principle, keeping focus on AJAX issues.

Sajax is an open source tool to make programming websites using the Ajax framework — also known as XML HTTP Request or remote scripting — as easy as possible. Sajax makes it easy to call PHP, Perl or Python functions from your webpages via JavaScript without performing a browser refresh.

JsUnit is a Unit Testing framework for client-side (in-browser) JavaScript. It is essentially a port of JUnit to JavaScript. Also included is a platform for automating the execution of tests on multiple browsers and mutiple machines running different OSs. Its development began in January 2001.

Expresso is a vastly growing popular text editor. It allows you to quickly organize, preview, find, and expand code. Preview your progress and easily publish websites with the click of a few buttons. However, it currently requires Leopard to operate.

Task Management Apps

Basecamp works with a variety of iPhone apps, third-party billing/invoicing tools, mock-up review software, time tracking tools, widgets, and more. Today it’s one of the leading web-based project collaboration tool.

Because we don’t all have photographic memory and genius time management skills Versions was created. This software allows web designers, developers, and more to manage their client’s projects without dealing with all the said hassle’s. Don’t worry, if you’ve never worked with Subversion this app should be a breeze even to the most of novice users.

You can identify employees who are aren’t working very hard. You can identify employees who are under tasked, but are afraid to speak up about it. You can identify employees who are unmotivated. You can see how environment variables in the work place effect aggregate productivity. For example, when a team doubles in size, how does that change how people spend their time? How has productivity changed since you changed the layout of the office? What would happen if you instituted a “no email on Fridays” policy?

PunchyTime is a simple time tracking tool for creatives (ad agencies, web-dev shops, etc). It makes it really easy for your team to enter time “as they work” instead of letting it all pile up till the end of the month (which is how billable hours get lost). The interface is quick, simple, and even a little fun. Get in, get out, get back to work.

The human body isn’t built to sit in one position for endless hours, gripping a mouse or typing on the keyboard. Dejal Time Out is here to help. It will gently remind you to take a break on a regular basis. Time Out has two kinds of breaks: a “Normal” break, typically for 10 minutes after 50 minutes of work, so you can move about and relax, plus a “Micro” break: a very brief pause of typically 10 seconds every 10 minutes, so you can remember not to tense up too much for long periods.

Prove to your clients that you’ve spent ‘that much time’ on their projects. Time tracking can be simple or detailed. Enjoy flexible reporting, multiple ways to communication and an interactive gantt chart and scheduling.

We’ve met folks who still haven’t tried the Google Doc applications, and we don’t know why. Use their documents, spreadsheets, presentation and PDF utilities and organize them by user or topic. You can share everything or nothing with your team. Also integrates a chat feature.

Flow works as a visual workflow manager that allows you to have full control over the current project you may be working on. Visit the Flow site to get a much better feel of this workflow management software.

EverNote easily lets you capture information within any given environment utilizing whichever device or platform you prefer, then it makes this information available and searchable any time you want, from virtually anywhere.

From the SLIMTIMER you can create tasks and even share them with your coworkers and those you report to. Open the SLIMTIMER and click on a task to start the clock and click again when you’re finished. If you’ve completed the task click the checkbox to mark it off. Close the browser when you’re done.

Intuit Billing Manager is the fast, easy, FREE way to manage your invoicing online. Use the Billing Manager web site to create customized, professional invoices, send them by email and track payment history and status — all on one place. Spend less time on your paperwork and more time on your customers.

Blinksale is perfect for anyone who needs to invoice clients for services or products sold. Blinksale is an excellent choice for attorneys, accountants, designers, IT professionals, software developers, journalists, contractors, engineers, architects, videographers, and more. Basically, if you need to send invoices, Blinksale can work for you

WORKetc provides serious business owners with all the software they need to build seriously successful businesses. We combine CRM, Projects, Billing, Timesheets and more with a powerful automation engine to help take your small business to the next level.

Billings great for the freelance web designer who has a stable and growing list of clients. It’s a productive invoicing tool that integrates the Mac interface with several useful features that’ll save you lots of wonderful time.

On The Job is a complete application that lets you track time, expenses, and simple client invoicing so that you’re able to always remain organized. If you have clients that reside in other countries then you can take advantage of the multiple currency billing option.

Be more organized with less effort. Time59 keeps track of the work you do, gets your invoices out quickly, and manages client payments. Your Time59 account can be accessed from any internet connected computer… at home, at your office, or on the road.

Money3 is a great accounting program developed for Mac OS X users. It’s the latest in money management apps and offers a high-quality GUI and the ability to manage various types of accounts. You can also plan out and easily track your budgets.

XE is an easy-to-use tool that will show you the current conversion rate. Simply enter the amount, the currency you’re converting from, and the currency you’re converting to and it will show you an up-to-date calculation.

Manage your projects and contacts, track the time you spend and create flexible timesheet reports. Create great looking invoices with no fuss. Email them to the client and easily track through to payment. FreeAgent makes sales tax reporting a snap, and you can easily customise it for your country.

Xero is an online accounting system designed for small businesses and their advisors. It’s simple, smart and secure. Easy bank reconciliation keeps your accounts accurate and up to date. Automatic bank feeds get your transactions in to Xero without effort. At the heart of Xero is a full accrual accounting system which automates and simplifies your day-to-day bookkeeping.